Sherlock Holmes and the case of the Time Lady
by Vilentiel
Summary: Post-movie. Watson had married and moved in with Mary. A new tenant at Baker street, who happens to be the daughter of the most famous  and only surviving Time Lord. It's my OC called Arianna, unrelated to any other or my fanfic's.
1. Chapter 1  Introductions

She walked down the busy London street, people were passing by quickly, she strolled leisurely in her beautiful dark blue Victorian dress. Her long black hair was up in a messy but stylish fixture that had a few curls trailing loose. Many men who passed her spared time to look and show her some unwanted attention, but she simply glared at them menacingly before gracefully continuing down the street. She had managed to leave the Torchwood premises on the promise that despite being based elsewhere she would still carry out jobs for them. They had given her a comfortable sum of money and found and bought a place for her to stay, although they warned if she were to ignore any request by them, they wouldn't hesitate in bringing her back and into a cell. She had managed her freedom, through a few years of good work and invaluable advice, with the addition of some persuasion from a friend of hers and current co-worker, Captain Jack Harkness. Now she was looking for her new place of residency and a little more freedom in her life, which was something of a luxury for her.

She reached the house in which she was to be staying as arranged by Torchwood, it was 221B Baker street. There was a convenience as a previous tenant had just moved out, leaving a vacancy. The other people still living there was the landlady, Mrs Hudson and one tenant, a rather unique detective. Not that this was of any interest to herself or Torchwood.

Arianna walked up to the black door and knocked loudly. Before long a pleasant looking woman, wearing rather plain clothes opened the door. Arianna could see that she was obviously not too well off judging by her attire, yet her posture was strong and she wore a necklace that denoted some wealth. She was a widow perhaps, left to look after a property she couldn't afford by herself, which would mean she was the landlady, Mrs Hudson. Of course it only took Arianna a couple of seconds to notice this.

"How may I help you dear?" Mrs Hudson asked.

"I'm Arianna Smith, you must be Mrs Hudson?" Arianna asked politely.

"Why yes, I am." Mrs Hudson smiled sweetly. "Do come in, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Smith."

"Please, it's just Arianna, and the pleasure is all mine." Arianna smiled a little before following the woman inside.

"Well, let's show you to your room." Mrs Hudson walked up the long staircase with Arianna behind, she opened the door to a room to find several furniture and books already there neatly. "Well here we are, your things are all here, they were sent before you, and right through here is all your clothes." Mrs Hudson indicated to a wardrobe.

"Thank you, it looks delightful." Arianna replied.

"Your welcome dear, now there's no set time for meals, but cook and the maids can bring them up whenever you want, if you don't say it shall be around 8:30 for breakfast, 1:00 for lunch and 6:30 for dinner. All meals will be served downstairs in the dinning room, however if you don't venture downstairs I'm sure the maid's will bring it too you. Oh, and do feel free to ask me or any of the staff for anything you need dear." Mrs Hudson smiled again.

"Of course, thank you, there is one thing. I hear that there is another tenant here? Is that correct?" Arianna asked. She was terribly polite; she had to make sure she complied with the correct image for a lady in the Victorian era on Earth.

"Yes there is, dear. A Mr. Sherlock Holmes. I'll introduce you to him, but I must warn you that he is a little… eccentric." Mrs Hudson searched for the right word to describe him.

"Ah, I see. Not to worry, my father was among many things, eccentric." Arianna said thoughtfully.

Mrs Hudson nodded and lead her to a door down the hall. She paused before knocking and entering the room. As soon as she entered, she coughed furiously through all the smoke that filled the air. She waltzed over to the window and opened letting most of the smoke out.

"Mr Holmes! Honestly, how can you breathe?" Mrs Hudson said angrily.

"Quite easily actually, Nanny." Holmes replied.

Mrs Hudson came to stand next to Arianna who was surveying the mess that was Holmes' room with amusement.

"Sorry for his state, dear. I would like to say he's not always like this, but, he is." She whispered.

"I heard that Nanny, and I'm not in any state, I'm in the process of a scientific breakthrough." Holmes replied whilst hunched over his many apparatus.

"Right, well there's someone here I'd like you to meet." Mrs Hudson said.

Holmes made no replied and instead he carried on fiddling with various flasks and such as if they weren't even in the room.

"Mr Holmes." Mrs Hudson said authoritatively.

Holmes turned around, his face displayed and obvious silent protest.

"This is Miss Arianna Smith. She is our new tenant." Mrs Hudson said gesturing towards Arianna who nodded slightly.

Holmes stood up and moved closer towards her.

"A lady alone?" He enquired.

"A working woman." Arianna simply replied.

"A working woman that can afford to rent?" Holmes asked suspiciously.

"My job is quite well paid."

Holmes raised his eyebrow slightly but said no more on the subject.

Mrs Hudson cleared her throat. "Yes, well I must be going now, please try to get along you two."

Arianna smiled a 'thanks' to her but watched as she left the room. By this time Holmes was already back near his make-shift laboratory. Arianna walked over to him quietly.

"May I see?" She asked.

Holmes looked up but said nothing as he backed away.

"Hmm, what have we here?" Arianna asked to herself. "I smell… Diethylamine," She paused "and acyl chloride, no wait chlorinated acyl chloride. Must be Chloroacetyl chloride." She looked up and at Holmes who was trying to suppress his surprise.

"What exactly are you trying to do, that would accumulate to a scientific breakthrough?" She asked.

"I'm working on a new anaesthetic." He said as he sat down in an arm chair and lit his pipe.

"Well, you've got a little way to go yet." She smiled, "But I'm impressed."

"You're impressed?" Holmes raised his eyebrows. "I'm the one who is more entitled to be impressed."

"And are you?" She asked, a smile playing at her lips.

"Yes, quite." He replied whilst smoking his pipe. "Please take a seat, Miss Smith."

"Thank you, but please call me Arianna." She replied as she found herself a seat.

"Where did you learn about such sophisticated science?" Holmes asked.

"At school, where else would one learn such things?"

Holmes smiled a little, a mischievous glint formed in his eye.

"I have never come across a woman with such knowledge." Holmes said.

"Well then, perhaps you have many things yet to learn Mr. Holmes." Arianna grinned cheekily.

"Please, it's Sherlock." He replied. "So what do you do for a living Arianna."

Arianna smiled at his use of her first name, he had remembered from earlier.

"I do much the same thing as yourself, investigating, deducting, and on occasion, aiding the law."

"I see, only on occasion." He smiled.

Arianna laughed, "Well, there's no fun in always following orders."

"You're quite right there."


	2. Chapter 2 Settling in

Chapter 2 - Settling in

It had been a week since Arianna had moved in, she had got quite used to Sherlock's abnormal behaviour. She had realised that most of the staff were quite frightened to go into his room as he often had his gun on him, or he was concocting an awful poison, so Arianna collected his post for him and brought it up to his room, to save a member of staff from doing it.

Arianna was in her room working on a scavenged piece of technology Torchwood had found and instructed her to examine it and find out what its purpose was, in the hope that they might be able to use it themselves.

Suddenly there as a feminine scream from the room next door. Arianna sighed, she was hardly surprised, Holmes seemed to have this affect on people quite often. Nevertheless she walked out her room to find a maid running towards her.

"Miss Smith! Please help, you know medicine!" She panted.

Arianna tried to calm the girl, "Please, tell me what happened, show me where he is."

The girl was still gasping for breath but she pulled Arianna into Holmes' room. And in the middle of the floor lay Holmes, completely passed out. Arianna gulped, she knew eventually Holmes would be the end of himself, but she rather hoped that was a long time away. She tried not to shake with nerves as she knelt beside him to feel his pulse. Luckily it was there, admittedly it was extremely slow, but it was there.

Arianna smiled, he was still alive. She turned to the maid, "He's going to be alright, can you bring some water up for him please?"

"Of course, Miss." The maid rushed out of the room quickly.

Arianna stood up and tried to lift Holmes, but he was heavier than he looked. She managed to drag him over to an arm chair and settle up so that he was up right but still leaning comfortably. She could smell the chemicals that he must have drunk, it was very strong. She walked over to his table where all his glass tubes and flasks of various potions were and inspected them.

"He must have been testing another anaesthetic, except this time on himself." Arianna said out loud.

"And I must say it's worked rather well." Holmes' croaky voice came from behind her.

She turned around and glared at him, "You know you had the poor maid in fits."

"I didn't realise she cared for me so much." Holmes half grinned as he tried to pull himself up a little.

Arianna rolled her eyes, and the maid came rushing back in with a jug of water.

"Thank you, just leave it there, he's quite well." Arianna said.

The maid did as instructed but she was still shaken from the experience, and so she just nodded and left. Arianna turned to Holmes who was now lighting his pipe.

"You do realise you could have killed yourself." Arianna said off-handed as she flicked through a book.

"Yes." Holmes simply replied.

Arianna looked at him, "You ought to drink some water after what you've taken, or you're going to dehydrate terribly."

"You sound like, Nanny." He replied whilst taking a swig of water.

"So, how do you feel now you've successfully lowered your heart rate by two thirds and then increased it back to normality again?" Arianna said sarcastically.

"Like, I've just travelled beyond the boundaries of the mundane normality of ordinary life." Holmes replied triumphantly.

Arianna laughed, "You only rendered yourself unconscious because you were bored?"

Holmes chuckled but he inhaled his smoke at the same time and coughed on it. "Are you telling me there's something better to do when you're bored?"

"Well, I'm always busy, so I've hardly had time to explore that." Arianna smiled as she put the book back. "I must be getting back to my work."

"Always nice of you to drop in." Holmes replied.

"Well, I can hardly ignore the screams of a poor girl who thinks her boss has just killed himself." She said over her shoulder as she walked to the door.

"Good, good. So I can rely on you to help me out then." Holmes called after her.

"I suppose so." Arianna said just before she shut the door behind her.

Arianna returned to her room to find her post had been brought up for her. She had an envelope with the Torchwood stamp on it. She picked it up and opened it to find the details of a short mission, it would only take an hour or so, maybe less if she could find a good driver. She was to locate a weevil that had recently been spotted, but she didn't know the streets very well. She needed someone with local knowledge. She tucked the envelope into the sleeve of her dress since it might be useful for future reference. She then walked over to Holmes' room again and found him exactly where she left him.

"Holmes?" Arianna asked, "Since you're relying on me, is there any chance I can rely on you?"

"Well, it's only fair." Holmes said.

"Right, because I need your knowledge of London." Arianna said.

Holmes nodded his head to show he was listening.

"I need to get to a factory on Cavendish street and I have no idea where that is." Arianna said.

"That's just of Portland road, near Regents Park." He replied barely looking up from his pipe.

"Thank you." She said quickly as she rushed back to her room, grabbed a coat, her stun gun, a hand held gun, her sonic device and then she ran down the stairs and out onto the street. She made her way over to a carriage that had just stopped and told the driver where she wanted to go, she paid him and hopped into the back of the carriage. It took about 10 minutes to get there and when she arrived; it seemed quite empty, which was lucky for her.

She took the address out of her sleeve and looked at it, before replacing it there; she headed for the abandoned factory on the end of the road. Once she got there she pulled out her gun and made sure that it was cocked and ready. She crept slowly into the factory. It was deadly silent. She walked slowly down the long corridor, suddenly she could hear noises. It sounded like running, she listened carefully and it began to get louder, indicating, the person was getting closer towards her.

Suddenly something came round the corner and stopped in front of her as she had her gun out.

"Sherlock?" She asked. "Why are you here?"

"To see you, what's taken you so long? I got here on foot and I arrived before you." He replied whilst panting slightly.

Arianna lowered her gun, "The driver took a wrong turning once." She stared at him, "Why did you follow me?"

"Young lady, heading towards an almost derelict area of town, couldn't let you go on your own." Holmes grinned cheekily.

Arianna rolled her eyes. "I'm quite capable of looking after myself thank you."

"I realise that, I was also curious as to your job." He admitted.

"Well, here it is." She said, "But you running about has now totally distracted me from my mission."

"Hunting down a creature about 6ft tall, with razor sharp teeth and a considerable amount of strength." He replied.

"How could you possibly know that?" Arianna's eyes widened.

"Just ran into it." He replied.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Arianna said angrily.

"You distracted my by asking questions."

Arianna pushed passed him and raised her gun as she slowly walked down the corridor Holmes had just ran from. "Where is he?"

"Two doors down to your right." Holmes said from behind her.

Arianna made her way down to the door and kicked it open to find the weevil lying on the floor with its hand caught in chain. There was blood next to it.

"What did you do to him?" Arianna asked.

"We had a little disagreement, then he got his hand stuck in that chain, and I thought it would be safe enough to come and find you." Holmes explained.

"Is that his blood?" Arianna pointed to the floor.

"No, that would be mine, he's tougher than he looks."

"Where are you hurt?" Arianna turned to him, her frustration had decreased somewhat.

"Just a scratch on my arm, I've taken care of it. Shouldn't you do something about him now?" Holmes nodded towards the alien lying on the floor.

"Right." Arianna said. She got a device out and fiddled with it, suddenly a large golden portal looking thing opened in front of them, Arianna went over to the weevil. "Help me will you?" she asked.

Holmes helped her pick up the weevil and throw it into the portal. Arianna then used her device to close it again.

"There, job done." She smiled.

"Fancy some food?" He asked holding out his arm.

"Why not?" She smiled and linked arms as they walked out the factory together. "You must want to ask me a few things."

"Indeed, but I'm also hungry."

Arianna laughed.


	3. Chapter 3 Explanations

Chapter 3 Explanations

They sat at a table in a restaurant that was filled with the scent of upper class women's perfume, imported from France, and the slightest whisp of smoke from pipes of some of the elderly men who decided that they would smoke during their meal. Holmes' was tucking into his meal and Arianna looked a little bemused.

"You don't seem particularly phased by what you have seen today." Arianna commented.

"All in good time, perhaps you should start to explain now." Holmes suggested.

"Where to start?" She smiled.

Holmes grinned craftily, "Why do you work for Torchwood?"

Arianna paused, how on Earth did he know that? How could he have possibly known? Then she remembered, he wasn't one of the most famous detectives of all time for no reason.

"Come on then, how did you know?" Arianna asked with a small grin.

"That's not important; I asked you a question first." Holmes replied although he too was still grinning.

"They needed my help." Arianna replied, "Tell me then."

"The maid came into my room after you left looking for you, she held a pile of letters, as she left I caught a glimpse of the bottom letter, it had a red seal, an official seal. Although I didn't get a glance at what was on the seal, after meeting our mutual friend with the teeth, it didn't take long to work it out." Holmes explained.

"Yes, but how did you make the link between the weevil and the seal?" Arianna asked, Torchwood was classified, all their information was classified. The few people that knew they existed (outside the organisation itself) would have no idea what they did.

Holmes raised an eyebrow, "A seal, not from the church, nor by any means of religious affairs yet it is still red indicates that it is of a secret yet powerful organisation. Torchwood is the only supposedly secret organisation that deals with aliens, and then we are back to the same issue of big teeth."

Arianna smiled again and leaned in slightly, she lowered her voice, "You're not meant to know that."

Holmes equally lowered his voice and leaned towards her across the table a little, "Even if I'm not, I've just seen it for myself."

"Very well, yes, you are right." Arianna agreed and leant back again. "Scared?"

Holmes, who had briefly stopped eating, now resumed consuming the wondrous meal in front of him. "Quite the contrary, I'm intrigued."

Arianna laughed lightly, "I should have guessed as much."

"With your superior alien intelligence, you should have, yes." Holmes replied calmly, Arianna immediately sat up and stared at him and his lips turned up into a small smile.

"Oh, you are good. You are very good Mr Holmes." Arianna said clearly amused as she chuckled.

"What is your race then? Tell me why you're here, chasing other aliens?" Holmes asked, his eyes wide and full of interest.

Arianna paused, there were people all around them, but she found herself compelled to tell Holmes. She thought that she perhaps, owed it to him, after his recent injury, which she reminded herself she must check later. In the mean time, he seemed like a relatively trustworthy person.

"I'm a Time Lord, well Time Lady. And I'm here because I don't have the means of travelling elsewhere, my ship which was actually just an escape pod, was destroyed. Torchwood found me and thankfully a friend of my father's works for them, so he put in a good word for me, so I'm just doing favours for them really." Arianna explained.

"I see, a Lady of Time." Holmes smiled, "Would you leave if you had the choice?"

"Oh yes, this planet is really quite primitive, I would prefer somewhere a little more _advanced_." Arianna said.

"So, we're not good enough for you, my lady?" Holmes asked cheekily.

"I think you're tolerable, only this era deems women as quite inferior, which Mr Holmes, you can imagine, is highly frustrating for me. Strange since there is a female on the throne, women ought to have the higher role in society." Arianna admitted.

"Well, I think we make quite the team, as _equals_." Holmes grinned.

"I agree, you have proved a very worthy companion." Arianna nodded in respect to him.

"Only a companion I see, I though I might be considered a friend, we are sharing a house." Holmes said whilst feigning offense.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry to have deluded you kind sir." Arianna laughed and pulled an expression of regret. "Perhaps I should move out now?"

"Or perhaps not."

- sorry it's short everyone, hopefully more will be coming -


	4. Chapter 4 A Friend?

Chapter 4 - A Friend?

It had been a few days since the incident with the Weevil and during this time Holmes had managed to squeeze more information out of Arianna. However as often as Arianna tried to ask Holmes any questions he refused to divulge much information. He was incredibly stubborn.

It was an ordinary Monday morning and Arianna was just sealing the envelope that contained the account of her latest mission when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in," Arianna called.

A timid maid shuffled into the room, "Sorry to disturb you Miss, but would you be so kind as to give these letters to Mr Holmes…" the girl paused, "I would do it myself Miss, it's just that…" she trailed off again.

Arianna smiled, stood up and walked towards her. "I completely understand." She took the letters out of the maid's hands before handing her another. "Would you please deliver this for me?"

"Of course Miss." The maid smiled giddily, "Thank you, thank you very much."

"You're welcome." Arianna replied as the maid hurried back out her room and down the stairs.

Arianna flicked through the letters as she walked into Holmes' room.

"You know, you really shouldn't scare the maids, they're starting to refuse to…" But Arianna stopped as she looked up and found another man sitting opposite Holmes, they were both staring at her.

"I'm terribly sorry, I didn't know…" Arianna began but the other man cut her off politely.

"Please don't worry," The man said as he stood up and walked towards her, "Holmes didn't mention there was someone else living her now, but I completely agree with you about the maids."

"Arianna Smith, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." She smiled and held out her hand.

The man took her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles gently, "Dr John Watson and the pleasure is all mine."

"Watson, you're a married man." Holmes muttered, his tone of voice displayed an obvious disgust for what is considered by most people as charm and social etiquette.

Arianna smiled at Dr Watson before walking over to Holmes and dumping the letters on his lap, "Your letters Mr Holmes."

"Thank you kindly, Miss Smith." He replied, not even bothering to veil his miserable mood.

There was an awkward silence before Watson decided to intervene.

"I used to live here Miss Smith," He begun.

"Before he abandoned me." Holmes added.

After a brief sigh Watson continued, "I moved out so that I could share a home with my wife."

"Ah." Arianna smiled.

"Anyway, I really must be going, it was a delight to meet you Miss Smith." Watson said as he headed for the door.

"And you Dr Watson, I do hope I didn't intrude…" Arianna said hesitantly.

"No, not all. Good day." Watson smiled as he turned to door handle.

"Feel free to drop by before next year." Holmes said as he fiddled with his violin.

"Why don't you ever come to see me?" Watson asked, "In fact are the two of you free tonight?"

"Absolutely not." Holmes replied.

"Neither of us have plans." Arianna said a little louder.

"I'm glad, please come to dinner tonight, 7 O'clock, with myself and my wife." Watson said.

"I'm afraid I have a dentist appointment this evening." Holmes said.

"We'll be there for 7." Arianna smiled.

"Thank you Miss Smith. I think you'll do him the world of good." Watson smiled.

"I do try." she replied.

Holmes let out a loud huff as Watson left. He plucked a few strings on his violin.

"Why did you agree to go?" Holmes asked bitterly, "I have no desire to attend social dinners."

Arianna sighed as she sat opposite him.

"He's your friend. You should visit him, it was very kind of him to invite us." She replied.

Holmes glanced up, his scowl diminished briefly as their eyes locked. A silent battle of will power raged between them until something seemed to happen and neither of them were fighting any more.

Suddenly Arianna broken the tranquil trance they had entered by sitting up and clearing her voice.

"Any new cases?" She asked, trying to rid them of the enveloping silence.

"None of any interest at all." He replied as he finally took his eyes off her briefly and plucked a few more chords.

"Yes, well." She cleared her voice again and avoided his gaze. "There must be something. You haven't even looked through those yet."

"Hmm… You can look through them." He tossed them onto her lap and looked at her intensely as he plucked a few more chords.

"Too boring for you to do yourself?" She asked absently.

"Of course." He said as his lips upturned slightly.

Arianna rolled her eyes and picked up the letters. She undid the first and began flicking through it.

"The enigmatic Arianna Smith." Holmes said softly.

Arianna glanced up and raised an eye brow.

"You puzzle me." He said as if that would clarify everything. "You say so very little."

Arianna laughed "I say plenty. _You_ say so very little."

"Oh but there's so much you _don't_ say. My life is as ordinary as anyone else on this planet, so there is really no need for me to say much. Whereas you have experienced so many fantastic things, which I have no knowledge of at all and which you fail to elaborate on." He said.

"I wondered why you've momentarily stopped your science experiments. I'm your new experiment." Arianna said sarcastically.

"No, no. You're far more interesting than any experiment."


End file.
